1. The End of Germany 1942-45

2. Key Themes Operation Barbarossa overstretches the Wehrmacht. Battle of Stalingrad is turning point: Germany never recovers. Allies grow stronger due to American manufacturing D-Day: Germany has to fight on two fronts. Germany squeezed by Russia to the East and Britain/America to the West. Allied bombing reduces Germany to rubble. German Reich is utterly annihilated.

4. Hitler’s Final Gamble Hitler’s intention all along had been to invade and occupy Russia. It was to be used as a vast industrial/agricultural zone for slave labor and resettlement. In the Fall of 1941, three million German soldiers surged into Russia German forces wait for the order to invade Russia

6. German Possessions 1942

7. Early Successes wiped out by the winter Germany had stunning successes early on similar to the triumphs in France, Poland and elsewhere. But the Russian winter proved to be the undoing on the German army…

8. Winter in Russia The Germans thought they would defeat Russia easily, so did not bother to take winter clothes. Tanks and other equipment did not work at such low temperatures (-50f) More Germans died of cold and starvation than in battle.

9. Stalingrad Stalingrad became Hitler’s main objective when the campaign renewed in the fall of 1942. But the Russians set a trap, and destroyed the entire German 6 th Army. Of the 750,000 German men who attacked Stalingrad, less that 10,000 ever made it back to Germany alive.

10. Stalingrad (Winter 1942/43)

11. Aftermath of Stalingrad German army was so weakened by battle that it began retreating toward Germany. Russian Army grew in size and strength. German defeat became inevitable, only a matter of time. Then…

12. D-Day

14. Allies open second front in France As Allies pour men and equipment into France, Germany is forced to fight a battle of two fronts. Germany now is in full retreat everywhere…

15. Terror Bombing Allied planes begin around the clock bombing of German civilian centers, industrial centers and other key sites. The idea is to weaken Germany and demoralize the German people

16. Terror Bombing Hundreds of thousands of German civilians are Killed. Allied pilots received worse casualties than any other branch of allied forces in entire war… Victims of the “Fire storm” in Dresden, killed, all burned alive. City was filled with refugees, some say 300,000 died in one night.

19. May 1945 Germany is wrecked, smashed beyond recognition. German army is completely annihilated Hitler is hiding in his bunker. Russian soldiers commit atrocities on Germans in payback for Nazi cruelty. Final phase of the war is a barbaric and inhuman struggle for Berlin. 500,000 die…

20. Battle of Berlin

23. The End of Hitler In the last days of the war Hitler ordered boys as young as 12 into battle against the Russians. He surrounded himself with his closest friends, and hid in the bunker.

24. The End of Hitler On April 30 th 1945, Hitler married his long time partner, Eva Braun. Then, they ate a last meal, took poison, and Hitler then shot her, before turning the gun on himself. Above the bunker, guards burned their corpses to prevent the same sort of mutilation that Mussolini had suffered. On May 8 th, Germany surrendered.